Welfare campaigners have warned 1.1 million children will be affected by this month’s cut to the coronavirus supplement, as a survey of single mothers finds the cash boost has reduced stress and anxiety.
The federal government has so far resisted demands to delay a cut to the pandemic top-up to jobseeker, student and parenting payments by $300 on 25 September, arguing the boost was always intended to be temporary.
But Terese Edwards, the chief executive of the National Council of Single Mothers and Their Children, said the $550-a-fortnight supplement had been “life-altering” and its reduction was causing “distress and fear”.
She pointed to a survey of 600 single mothers conducted by the organisation that found the income boost had reduced stress for 88% of respondents because they could now afford to pay their bills.
It found 69% of respondents believed their family was healthier because they could now afford nutritious food, while 64% were sleeping better.
The extra income was most likely to be spent on groceries (79%), followed by energy costs (56%) and car expenses (51%).
Edwards said she had spoken to single mothers who had lost work in industries such as hospitality and tourism who were particularly worried about their futures.
“Women who have never been on jobseeker payment say they categorically don’t know how they are going to manage,” Edwards said.
About 244,000 single parents receive parenting payment ($790-a-fortnight plus the $550 Covid supplement and the family tax benefit), while those with children older than seven get jobseeker payment ($565 plus the $550 Covid supplement and the family tax benefit).
The coronavirus supplement is also provided to students receiving youth allowance or Austudy.
Toni Wren, the executive director of Anti-Poverty Week, said government data showed about 1.1 million children lived in families receiving the supplement in July.
That included 500,000 children whose parents were receiving the jobseeker payment.
“Our main concern is that now it is one-in-five Australian children whose parents are receiving that payment,” Wren said.
Among those facing the cut is Adelaide woman Lisa Birch, a single mum of two children aged four and two.
Birch, 34, studies and works one day a week at an after-school care program. She also receives parenting payment, with most of her income going to rent and childcare.
“Last year I was really struggling to make ends meet,” she said. “I was selling stuff on Facebook, using Foodbank and trying to get through.
“The supplement just balanced it all out. I’ve been able to get my car fixed, get textbooks for uni.”
Birch knew she would still get “a little bit more” than she had before the pandemic, but was “pretty gutted” about the cut.
“I know there is stuff I won’t be able to do anymore,” she said. “With the supplement I’m ahead on my bills so it’s probably back to just trying to get by.
“I used to be a teacher and work full-time and now I’m a single mum living on these payments. I understand it’s a stop-gap measure but to go without so much has just been really tricky. It’s not the life I want my kids to grow up with either.”
Edwards has been running a campaign – 550 Reasons to Smile – aimed at showing the tangible difference the payments have made for single mothers.
Birch sent Edwards a photo of the new tyres that she was able to buy to fix her car, while other photos included new lightbulbs, medication and a full fridge of food.
Edwards said several women had told how the supplement allowed them to go to the dentist, while one mother had been able to buy her 15-year-old son a birthday present for the first time in years.
The reduction to the supplement on 25 September comes with about 5 million people in Melbourne under stage four restrictions that include a nightly curfew and the closure of key industries.
Under a Victorian government roadmap unveiled on Sunday, workplaces including retail and hospitality will remain closed until at least 26 October.
That is a month after the cut to the supplement, which coincides with reductions to the jobkeeper wage subsidy.
“I get messages from women in lockdown in Melbourne who have a feeling of real confusion,” said Edwards.
“Not only will their jobs not be there when they get out of lockdown, they are going to have the coronavirus supplement cut as well.”
Analysis by the Guardian last month estimated about 420,000 Melburnians under stage four lockdown would be affected by the coronavirus supplement cut.
Meanwhile, geographical analysis from the Parliamentary Library released this week found the largest increases in jobseeker recipients during the pandemic had taken place in Coalition electorates in south-east Queensland and Labor-held electorates in western Sydney and Melbourne’s west.
The largest increase was in the tourism-focused Liberal electorate of Moncrieff, which covers the Gold Coast, but there were also large increases in the Labor electorates of Calwell and Lalor in Melbourne’s north and west.
The Greens-held seat of Melbourne, which covers the CBD and inner suburbs, ranked eighth.
By raw figures, the electorate with the most jobseekers facing a cut to their incomes is the Labor seat of Spence, in Adelaide’s north, where 17,864 people were getting the payment in late June.
That was followed by the Liberal seat of Leichhardt which covers Cairns (17,114), Calwell (16,505), and the Labor seat of Lingiari in the Northern Territory (15,991).
Guardian Australia reported on Monday that by one measure the jobseeker benefit would be the third-lowest unemployment benefit in the OECD once the supplement tapers down to $815 a fortnight in two weeks.
